Aug. 16—MARSHALL — For the first time in team history, the Paynesville Pirates etched its name into the Class C state amateur baseball tournament after one of the team’s biggest comebacks of the season.
Paynesville scored two runs in the top of the ninth to take a 7-6 victory over the Regal Eagles in the Region 4C tournament Saturday at Legion Field.
After defeating Willmar 2-0 in its first game of the day, the Pirates leaned on a clutch offense and defense in the ninth to advance to the state tournament.
“It’s great that we’ve made it this far and had this great of a season,” Pirates’ coach Ron Fuchs said. “They came back and just battled, down to our last strike in the last inning. To get those timely hits, I give our guys so much credit for hanging in there and battling.”
Paynesville gave a slight premonition to what the ninth inning would hold with batters Drew Tangen earning the first hit of the game with a single and Luke Johnson connecting for a double. Both would score on an RBI single by Grady Fuchs, giving the team a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
Tangen ended the game 4-for-5 with two runs, an RBI and a double. Johnson hit 3-for-4 with a walk, two runs and two doubles.
After pulling out a 5-4 victory over Marshall nearly 30 minutes prior to playing against Paynesville, Regal began to regain its energy, shutting down Paynesville’s offense for the next five innings. But the Eagles struggled trying to find its scoring groove.
That was, until the bottom of the sixth when Regal’s bats torched the Pirates with back-to-back two-run doubles by Jordan and Josh Beier. The Eagles also recorded three walks and two singles in the inning. They ended the sixth by scoring six runs, taking a 6-2 lead.
That brought strong confidence to the Eagles’ fan section as well as the dugout. However, the team would not score another run in the game.
In dire need of an answer after Regal took the lead, the Pirates scored three runs in the top of the seventh to cut the deficit to 6-5.
Following a scoreless eighth inning, it all came down to the bottom of the ninth. It would turn out to be the most intense inning of the game.
After two quick outs to start the top of the ninth, the Eagles may have begun to feel comfortable about their season continuing in the state tournament.
For Paynesville, there was still one out remaining.
Tangen kept the Pirates’ fire alive by connecting for a double. The next batter, Johnson, drew a walk.
With the tying run on second and lead run on first, the atmosphere began to creep into the Paynesville dugout.
Grady Fuchs completed the momentum shift with a clutch RBI single, scoring Tangen. Johnson scored on an RBI by Garrett Leusink in the next at-bat for the go-ahead run.
Grady Fuchs finished 2-for-5 with 3 RBIs.
With the Pirates in the lead, the excited Paynesville dugout happily greeted the runners, with Johnson hopping his way into the dugout while rallying the Pirates’ fanbase.
As for Regal, the Eagles’ outfield stood motionless having recorded two quick outs moments prior. Leusink continued the inning with another single, bringing Grady Fuchs to third. But Regal finally earned its third out with a catch in the outfield to head into the bottom of the ninth.
Similar to the Pirates, Regal was not ready to end its season without a battle, with pinch hitter Tyler Kemen connecting for a single to start things off, followed by a drag bunt single by Jordan Wosmek.
Now, Regal was in the same position as Paynesville in the top of the ninth. Paynesville managed to get two outs before Nathan Meyer drew a walk, loading the bases. The Eagles’ Shane Rademacher drew a 3-0 count before Johnson threw his first strike of the at-bat. Rademacher drove the next pitch into the outfield, only for the ball to end up in the center fielder’s glove for the game-clinching out.
“It was a good battle,” Regal coach Nathan Beier said. “We came back to get that decent lead, but we knew it wasn’t over and it was going to be a battle.”
Coach Beier believes not scoring earlier prevented the Eagles from advancing to state.
“We missed scoring chances early, we had guys in scoring positions particularly in the earlier innings. That kind of came back to haunt us,” he said.
As for Paynesville, the narrow victory allows the Pirates to prepare for the state tournament for the first time.
“I’m on Cloud Nine,” Ron Fuchs said. “I can’t explain it. Along with the excitement, I got goosebumps and my heart is beating 100 beats-per-minute. This is so much fun and I’m so proud of our guys.”
Paynesville 7, Regal 6
Paynesville 200 000 302-7 14 1
Regal 000 006 000-6 12 1
Hitting — Paynesville: Grayson Fuchs 2-5 r rbi sb, Drew Tangen 4-5 2b r-2 rbi, Luke Johnson 3-4 2b-2 r-2 bb, Grady Fuchs 2-5 rbi-3, Garrett Leusink 1-5 2b, Tanner Stanley 1-5 … Regal: Jordan Beier 1-4 2b r rbi-2 sac-2, Josh Beier 1-6 2b r rbi-2, Nathan Meyer 3-4 r bb hbp, Shane Rademacher 1-6, Chris Beier 1-3 bb-2, Blake Karsch 1-4 r hbp, Nathan Beier 1-3 r rbi bb hbp, Derek Dengerud 1-4 bb, Jordan Wosmek 2-3 r bb-2
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — Paynesville: Sam Oehrlein 5-4-2-2-4-2, Griffin Bjerke 2/3-4-4-4-1-1, Luke Johnson (W) 3 1/3-4-0-0-1-3 … Regal: Radermacher 6 1/3-8-4-4-0-3, C. Beier 1 1/3-4-1-1-0-0, Meyer (L) 1-2-2-1-1-1